On Sunday, after The Washington Post published Christine Blasey Ford's account of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault in the 1980s, the White House reissued a blanket denial Kavanaugh had made Friday, before Ford's name was public but the outlines of her allegations had leaked: "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time."
A lawyer close to the White House said the accusation of attempted rape will not derail Kavanaugh's nomination. "No way, not even a hint of it," he told Politico. "If anything, it's the opposite. If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something."
Ford told the Post that around the summer of 1982, when she was 15 and Kavanaugh would've been 17, he and a friend shoved her into a room in a suburban Maryland house and Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her over her clothes and tried to remove them, and held his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell for help over the loud music blaring. Ford said Kavanaugh was probably unable to undress her because he and his friend, Mark Judge, were "stumbling drunk," and she was able to escape after Judge jumped on top of them and they all toppled to the floor. Judge said Friday that the assault "never happened" and he "never saw anything like what was described."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The retired FBI agent who gave Ford a polygraph test in early August confirmed to The New York Times that Ford's answers indicated "no deception," meaning "she was being truthful" in affirming her allegations against Kavanaugh. A therapist's notes from 2012 also partially corroborate her story. In a book about recovering from alcoholism, Judge included a story about his friend "Bart O'Kavanaugh" puking in a car and passing out at a party, and Kavanaugh's Georgetown Prep high school yearbook suggests he was a tippler, the Post says.
-
Disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon's risky missionTalking Point Iran-backed militia has brought 'nothing but war, division and misery', but rooting them out for good is a daunting and dangerous task
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogsThe Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
Crossword: August 31, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
RFK Jr. names new CDC head as staff revoltSpeed Read Kennedy installed his deputy, Jim O'Neill, as acting CDC director
-
DC prosecutors lose bid to indict sandwich throwerSpeed Read Prosecutors sought to charge Sean Dunn with assaulting a federal officer
-
White House fires new CDC head amid agency exodusSpeed Read CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted after butting heads with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines
-
DOGE put Social Security data at risk, official saysSpeed Read DOGE workers made the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans vulnerable to identity theft
-
Court rejects Trump suit against Maryland US judgesSpeed Read Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump appointee, said the executive branch had no authority to sue the judges
-
Trump expands National Guard role in policingSpeed Read The president wants the Guard to take on a larger role in domestic law enforcement
-
Trump says he's firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa CookSpeed Read The move is likely part of Trump's push to get the central bank to cut interest rates
-
Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
